General Cycling Discussion - big guy?

hey um i've been riding now for bout 5 years and a good friend of mine whats to start biking but heres the problem: he is overweight but he is fit(if that makes sense)he can run faster than most people he can run a mile in 10 mins. but i dunno if he can beome a biker im teaching him but he just cant do the stuff right .dont get me wrong i encourage this guy everyday i try to teach him. but what do you guys think .thanks

What is BIG?

I'm 235 ish and I ride fine.

yeah but this guy is like 16 or 17

Originally posted by i_ride_bikes
i dunno if he can beome a biker im teaching him but he just cant do the stuff right

What exactly is the "stuff" he's doing wrong?

rite now were just doing the basics bunnyhop,manuals thats pretty much it but

Give it time......
I have always been a big guy. But I rode my Gary Fisher Supercaliber for years, and loved it. He'll learn, just takes time.

What does being big have anything to do with his learning or love for riding? I mean come on now. Just because he can't bunny hop has nothing to do with the type or person he is or how good of a rider he is. What's to say he doesn't destroy you on climbs with his stronger legs? Or maybe on the decent? If he is a friend it won't matter ...

To do tricks and stuff (manuals and especially street stuff) I find being big (6'5 and 260) to be a disadvantage. I am not sure exactly why but I chock it up to centre of balance and pure size. In order for me to manual I really need to be off kilter...small guys work it better. If you look at most (not all I do know about the odd freak) pros they are small guys. When I was at the freeride comp in whistler I had a chance to meet most of the best riders in the world. Let me tell you there was no big freeriders at all. In fact small would be generous for quite a few.

Now to throw in another caveat. I do know there are guys like roxwell (the tall dh guy) and a couple of bmxers who prove this wrong but typically shorter riders do better on the technical end of riding (that and they tend to look smoother)

Now...practice does make perfect and he can get really smooth especially if he is young...has he ever tried a BMX...it helped me a tonne and I just started riding them at 28/.

yeah but this guy is like 16 or 17

Age should not matter. The more he practices the better he will get. I would have him practice ballance then move on to hops, wheelies and jumps. Also, the more he rides the more weight he will loose and riding will become easier.



:beer:

well i decided im still gonna teach him. i saw this thing on mtv bout this girl becoming a bmx rider and after only 5 weeks of training she did a backflip and she didnt know how to roll in that good after that i said to myself damn im gonna teach this kid well later sounds funny i know